Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse from MS. Longleat 29 and related manuscripts

This book comprises a critical edition of the major English writings, except the glossed Psalter, of the Yorkshireman Richard Rolle (c 1300-1349), who was the first of the English medieval mystics. His belief in a personal communion between Creator and created was to affect the development of Pre-Reformation religious thought. His ultimate choice of English as the vehicle in which to express his teaching, at a time when it was still a secondary language, rekindled the tradition of vernacular devotional prose. The introduction extends the researches of H.E.Allen on Rolle manuscripts, discusses their relationships and examines methods of textual transmission.